The Technomage
by bkasavan
Summary: Everything can be done with a few keystrokes. Well, most. Harry found a computer, and later ran away from the Dursleys. Lets see how a logical, resourceful mind fairs for Harry. Rated T for language and because I don't really know much bout how to rate it.
1. A Discovery

So, I have finally bitten the bullet and written something. I hope it turns out well.

There are some slight crossovers into other stuff, both movies (Hackers, 1995), essays (references to The Conscience of a Hacker), real life (with the MoD in the next chapter), and anything else that strikes my fancy.

If you would like to beta the story, please contact me. (I'm still learning how to work the site.)

This will be a multi-chapter story, obviously. I've been hesitating for how long to make chapters, so please give me your opinion on that. Updates will happen every Saturday at 12pm EST, or earlier.

.:-o~o-:.

_It was the night before christmas, and all through the house, not a sound to be heard, but the click of a mouse._

Harry Potter was a small, 5 year old boy. He had green eyes, and hair which absolutely refused to be tamed. However, it's not the only thing which refused to be tamed. He also had his curiosity.

He had a thirst for finding things out. That wasn't very easy, though, with his living conditions. He lived with his uncle, and aunt, and cousin. Three perfectly normal people, in the perfectly normal house of Number 4 Privet Drive.

Harry, however, was not normal. He was abused, ridiculed, and never allowed to state his mind, or play with toys. If he let show any sign of independant thought, he would receive a good beating from his Uncle Vernon.

He thus stopped showing signs of independent thought. He went through the motions of cooking their breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and cleaning the house, and being invisible, and in return, he wasn't beaten much, and he had some food.

But in his mind he was always thinking.

.:-o~o-:.

It was Dudley's 6th Birthday, and he received a brand new, top of the line laptop, router, and printer. He promptly stepped on the charger and broke it. He threw a huge fit, beat up Harry, and moved on. Computers were for nerds and other losers.

Harry, however, was intrigued by the computer. He saved it from the trash, and hid it in his cupboard. Using his nails, and spare bits of metal, he was able to open up the charger, and found what made it break - the fuse had come off. He place it back, taped it together, and, booting up the laptop, he found it worked.

Over the next year, he would start using it, more and more. He would no longer take advantage of his family being out of the house to watch the TV. He would spend his nights, and all his free time on the computer. He stole The C Cookbook from the library, and using that started to learn to program increasingly complex programs.

And, only then, when his family left on a weekend vacation to France, did he plug in the modem.

It was amazing. The data rushed in through the phone line, onto the screen and into his mind like heroin through an addict's veins. He was transfixed. And then he started playing around. He didn't want to ever lose this. But when his uncle came back...

Harry put on his best T-shirt and shorts (Which really weren't that good), took a buck from Dudley's piggy bank, and went to the local 99 cent store. Strolling down the aisle, he placed a 10ft phone cable in his pocket (The cable sliding conveniantly through the hole in it), along with a jack duplicator (To plug 2 wires into one jack). He picked up a roll of tape, paid for that (80 cents) and went back home.

It was only one hours work to hide the phone line going into his room. It was so cramped, anyway, and no one ever went into his room, ever. He plugged back in, and started talking on an IRC network, to someone by the name of Electron. That person mentioned how they had just managed to access NASA's servers, through some vulnerability in their servers, but then got stuck at a password screen.

This was how he was introduced to the world of Hacking.

With only 2 hours till his uncle came back, he took apart the router, disconnected the speakers, put it back together, unplugged it, and hid it as he heard the car coming back.

But from then on, whenever the clock passed 11PM, he was online, talking with other hackers, exploring the internet.

He quickly found a way onto Oxford's computers, and began using their phone line to connect to other continents. He talked to people in Melbourne, and New York, and Washington, and Paris, and Hong Kong. And none of them disliked him.

He was welcomed with open arms, encouraged, they valued his curiosity, and increased his self-esteem. He became confident.

Or as confident as a 7 and a half year old could be.

.:-o~o-:.

It was approaching 7am on Sunday, 2 years later, and he knew, somewhere, in the very back of his mind, that he should go to sleep. But he was so close. He knew that a vulnerability was only a few keystrokes away. He was a few moments from gaining control of a DoD computer.

8am arrived, and he finally reached. A triumphant smile spread on his face, he marked a few notes down, unplugged the modem, his the computer, and his head thunked onto his bed.

9am passed. His aunt awoke and went into the shower.

10am passed, his uncle awoke, heaved his large mass off the bed, and walked through his bedroom door. He went downstairs, and frowned when he didn't heard the sound of bacon sizzling from the kitchen. He arrived there, and yelled out "BOY!"

But Harry was fast asleep.

"BOY!" Uncle Vernon yelled again "GET IN HERE THIS MINUTE."

But Harry was fast asleep.

Vernon brought his heavy body back towards the cupboard and smacked open the door.

And Harry woke up, all bleary eyed.

"So you think you can just sleep in, did ya now?" His uncle picked him up and dragged him into the hallway. A heavy blow hit the side of his head, and was followed by another. And another. And another.

Dudley came down and started watching, before being told to bring a belt.

Harry Potter's uncle ripped off his shirt and began hitting him, again, and again, and again, and again. Dudley arrived and started kicking him too. And then he drifted in and out of consciousness.

.:-o~o-:.

He came to later at around 1pm. Everyone had left. His aunt appears to have bandaged up the worst of the cuts, and poured some rubbing alcohol on his back to disinfect it (It wouldn't to do have to bring him to the hospital).

He lays in bed, thinking in misery.

.:-o~o-:.

And then he decides that he should leave.

.:-o~o-:.

Please leave a review! Thanks!


	2. Freedom

He spends his time until 3pm thinking, and then takes up his computer and begins his preparations.

.:-o~o-:.

His uncle arrives after he plugged the phone back in, Harry pretends to still be knocked out.

.:-o~o-:.

His uncle has gone to bed, and the clock has passed 12am. Harry stealthily gets up, and sneaks into his uncle's room.

His hand sneaks into his uncles emergency fund and pulls out eight 20 pound notes. He then takes Dudley's backpack, stows his computer, modem, charger, and books inside of it, and leaves.

He walks for 2 hours before reaching London Proper at 2AM, and from there he takes a taxi to a hotel, into which he sneaks and borrows a room to use until the next day.

The next day began at 6AM, when he snuck out of the room (After eating all the food, and taking most of the drinks in the mini fridge and placing them in his bag.)

He hailed a cab, and went to Heathrow International Airport. From there on, he knew what he was doing.

He put on a brave face, stepped up to the counter, showed his passport and said his mommy wanted him to pick up his own ticket and here was his passport and the ticket is for the 9AM flight number AA3540 to JFK and was there anything else they needed?

The lady at the checkin smiled at him, slowly typed some letters into the computer, smiled, and printed his ticket.

"Here you are, dear."

.:-o~o-:.

He went past security, found his gate, plugged in his computer, and continued to program.

.:-o~o-:.

He boarded at 8:45 after closing his computer, and, after taking his seat (number 7C), he continued his program. He (reluctantly) stowed his computer for takeoff and landing, and kept at his task in between (He had 2 extra batteries to keep his computer running during the 6 hour flight.)

.:-o~o-:.

His landing was uneventful. He passed through customs, answering questions such as "Do you plan to assassinate the president of the united states? Do you intend to commit acts of terrorism? Have you worked with livestock recently? Are you affiliated with any communist groups?", and most importantly "Did any unknown persons give you anything to place in your bag?" No, no, no, no, no, and no.

"I'm just coming to visit my uncle!" he answered with a great smile

A taxi took him all the way to Manhattan and, with his wallet 35$ emptier, he exited in the central park at 9PM.

And he realised he had no idea what to do now.

.:-o~o-:.

An hour later, he was on his computer again, sitting in the park, all depressed like. The hotels wouldn't accept an unaccompanied minor. He didn't have access to the internet. He held his head in his hands and started crying, the light of his laptop casting a bluish glow on him.

That's how Kate later found him.

"Are you OK?" she asked.

"Yes, of course I am" he answered.

She notices some recent scars on his arms. She thought back to her own childhood, and how after her father had beaten her, she had run off, and must have looked very similar.

"Do you have somewhere to stay?" He shakes his head. He found himself trusting her for some reason. "Do you want to stay at my place?" He looked up, slightly hopefully, and nodded.

"I'm Harry" he said, holding out his hand.

"Hi Harry, I'm Kate" she answered, shaking his hand with a smile.

.:-o~o-:.

Her apartment was a small dorm in NYU - the university she was attending. He slept until almost noon.

When he woke up, he saw the apartment was empty, and so he connected his computer to the modem, and once more injected himself with the sweet data of the internet. He was looking up all he could find on his host. And it wasn't much.

He went back on IRC to speak with those he knew. Acid wasn't online, but that wasn't odd. She rarely was at this time of the day.

Kate returned and found him entering NASA again.

"Just make sure you ping it off a few unis so they can't trace you." she said.

He jumped a tad, in surprise - he hadn't even noticed she was home.

"You're a hacker!" he exclaimed, surprised. She answered with a smile.

"Yep, I didn't know you were too. You want some eggs?" He answered positively, and she went to the kitchen to make him some food.

"Do you want some help?" He asked, and was answered that it was fine.

.:-o~o-:.

Well, it turns out that she actually was the hacker who went by the name of Acid. When he introduced himself there was a lot of laughter. She ruffled his hair and said it was nice to meet another hacker.

The handle he went by was Wizard, because he felt that the power of computers to fix everything was almost magical.

.:-o~o-:.

The hour was approaching 3AM. His computer was currently connected to the University of Oxford, which connected to the university of Melbourne, which connected to the University of Harvard, through which he was attempting to break into the DoD's network.

It was quite fun, really.

ENTER PASSWORD:

Well, he tried Sex, Money, Secret and God (It's that whole male ego thing), and none worked so he tried to regex his way through and that did work.

.:-o~o-:.

Acid and Wizard were at HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth) when it happened: An owl swooped into the room they were in and presented him with a letter. A man at the end of the table gasped.

Harry opened the letter and read it.

"What the hell is Hogwarts and who is Albus Dumbledore?"

The man at the end of the table rose and moved towards Harry.

"Do not speak of this to others. You shall know soon." He then moved over to a phone and let out a rapid series of 17 whistled notes.

"The Masters of Deception shall be meeting in this room in 7 minutes."

A pointed look the man gave to the others convinced them to leave. The MoD (Masters of Deception) were known as one of the best hacking groups in the world. Their only rival with the LoD (Legion of Doom).

7 minutes later, a series of people entered the room. A greater variety of people would be hard to find. 2 were in immaculate suits, 1 was in old, dirty, holed T-shirt and jeans, 1 women was in a tiny mini-skirt, and almost bra-like shirt, while another women was dressed in well kept jeans and a sweater. The last two were dressed in some sort of long dress-like thing. Robes. The man was dressed in a standard jean and black T-shirt, while his shoulder-length hair was tied back into a ponytail.

"Hello, I would like to welcome you all to this meeting of the MoD. For the two new people, I am Kevin." The eyes of Wizard and Acid widened dramatically as they realised who they were talking to.

"H-hi" Harry managed to say "I'm Harry. Harry Potter."

"Are you really?" one of the men in a suit asked. The question appeared the surprise Harry greatly, and before he could answer, that man said "Ah, I see."

"What we are about to reveal to you two must not be told to anyone you know, is that understood?" He is met with nods. "What that letter you received means is that you are a wizard."

Harry answered with a big. blank state. "A wizard." he answered incredulity.

"Yes. Magic exists." he said, before pulling out a thin, long stick "Watch closely"

He pointed his wand at the vase on the table, swish and flick'ed and the vase began floating towards Harry. He quickly caught it and checked it for ropes, magnets, or other ways it could have done that. "How..."

"Magic."

"Now, listen up right here," Acid interrupted "Do you really expect me to believe that there is this mystical force that exists and that no one knows about?"

"Yes. What could we do to prove it for you?"  
"Well... Change that vase into a pig."

"Very well," Kevin said. He started muttering a series of latin words.

Acid just looked at him with amusion. That is, until a loud POP was heard and the vase transformed into a pig! A real, live, pig. Full size.

"Want some pork chops?" he said with a smile.

.:-o~o-:.

A/N:

Thanks for all the reviews I got. Based on what I've heard, I'll try to make longer chapters (This and last one my goal was over 1k words (I have about 1400) - I'm now aiming for at least 2000 words.

Any suggestions, please give them! (I try to answer all reviews (And I believe I succeeded in doing so (Other than guest reviews.))

Also, and resemblances to real or fiction people are intended, but non-existent. (Peopl such as Acid and Kevin are inspired by real or movie characters, but that's all. No more. They aren't those people - just inspired a bit (Who here can tell who Kevin is inspired by (No googling.))

Next update will happen by **Saturday January 25th. **I might update before that, but I'm not even done writing Chapter 3 - and I try to be a chapter or two ahead to keep to a regular schedule. If I do get a few chapters ahead, I will post pre-schedule, and on schedule. But don't count on it.


	3. Magical Shopping pt1

AN: I have made some stylistic choices because of the subject of the story, for example putting commas outside of quotation mark (I went to a place called "Diagon Alley", and there... , in stead of having the comma in the quotes as grammar orders.) Also, I will verb nouns and noun verbs.

So, if you notice any errors such as that, they are intentional.

.:-o~o-:.

They left after that, agreeing to meet up with Kevin again in 1 day, and in this time they were able to come to terms with the fact that Wizard, Harry, was, well, a wizard!

I mean, how cool is that?

.:-o~o-:.

Harry walked onto onto the corner of 42nd and Lexington, the place he had agreed to meet Kevin.

It wasn't too hard to spot him, what with Kevin's rather... unique fashion sense. In any case, once they met, Kevin began leading Wizard and Acid to Macys.

Of course, once they were there, he pressed his stick of wood between the 12th and the 14th floor, and the elevator began moving upwards.

"Where are we going?"

"Harry, my friend, you are about to discover the Magical Mall of Manhattan!" Kevin answered with a flourish at the end, the same time of which the doors opened.

And wow. It was huge.

Now, I don't mean big like a truck is big, or an auditorium is big. I mean huge, like, Amazon warehouse, or transatlantic cruise ship big. Stores went off further than the eye could see.

People were bustling about everywhichway, yelling, whispering, a few were singing, and almost all had bags in their hands.

"I do believe the first thing to do would be answer our kind Albus Dumbledore's letter. What have you decided?"

"I will go to Hogwarts" said Harry "At very least to discover how it is. I will always be able to return if it's bad."

"OK, well, let's go to the international post office for our first stop then."

With Kevin, Harry went into the Fast Fiery Mail Service, and quickly jotted down a letter of acceptance. He closed the parchment, and addressed it to Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. Kevin took it, handed a few silver coins to the boy behind the counter, who attached it to an owl, threw some green stuff in the fire and yelled "Diagon Alley", before throwing the owl into the fire.

"We should probably get you a wand now" said Kevin "Just wait till you see the store!"

.:-o~o-:.

Western Wizarding Wands was advertised with a big, flashing sign, floating in mid air, which seemed to be made of lots of twigs (but that doesn't make sense, twigs aren't electrical. How could they - Magic)

Inside was a small, modern room, with a counter and a plain white hallway going out back.

"In for a new wand, lad?" asked an old man behind the counter

"Yes" answered Harry confidently.

"Well then, come on back."

He looked back briefly to see Kevin smile encouragingly at him, and then he followed the old man into the hallway.

"Now, stand rights there, and give a sound if you feel anything change"

Harry looked at him with curiosity, but then the walls slid up revealing rows upon rows of wants, the length of the hallway, and behind.

"So, Hold your hands out, about 2 inches from the rows." he said pressing a button. Upon his action, the wands started moving, 3 wands passing each hand every second. "O, and try not to touch them while they move"

Harry stood stock still, and could feel a slight wind brought about by the movment of the wands.

But nothing more than that for almost two minutes, that is, when he felt a small attraction on his left hand.

"There!" he yelled, and the machine instantly stopped, and slowly went backwards. He could feel the wand approach him, and, once it was next to him, he yelled "That one!"

"No need to yell, lad, my hearing's just as good as it's always been" the shopkeeper said, before he walked over to the wand, and plucked it out of the holder, and handed it to Harry "So, that will be 11 galleons. You can pay by coin, credit, or dollar." he told him as they walked back to the main room.

When Harry started reaching for his wallet, Kevin stopped him, and handed the man 11 golden coins. "That will be all, thank you kindly." After they had left the store, Harry confronted him about paying for him. He can pay for his own stuff, thank you very much. "Once we get to Gringotts, you'll see. You'll be able to pay me back - I didn't want you to have to pay the outrageously large conversion rates. They take 50-80%."

"Gringotts?"

"Well, I guess that'll be our next stop."

They headed down the aisles until they got to a large iron door, with baroque style gold and silver decorations, with the word GRINGOTTS written on top of it.

They walked through, passed the security goblins and the... poem, and headed to an empty counter with the words "VIP" above it.

Kevin stepped up, along with Harry and Acid

"We would like to visit Mr. Potter's vault" he intoned.

"Do you have your key?" answered a slightly squeaky voice.

"No, he doesn't. However, he is willing to do a blood identification test."

"Very well. Step through here then, and take the second door on the left. And only that door."

They followed the goblin's directions, and there they found another goblin, who looked at them, and told Harry to place his hand in that metallic glove.

Harry complied, and it fit oddly well, almost as if it had been made for him (A small voice in the back of his head whispered "magic...")

"It will sting a little" said the goblin, right before Harry felt a pinch between his thumb and index finger. As soon as that happened, a small paper was spit out of a slot in the desk.

"Lets see" said the goblin "Heir of Potter. Heir of Aragon. Heir of Saul."

The goblin pondered briefly, spoke a few words in gobbledygook and out came another sheet.

"Your current vault holdings are the Potter Trust Vault, containing 20 000 galleons, the Potter Family Vault with 2.2M galleons, the Potter Storage Vault contain unknown objects, the Aragon General Holdings Vault containing 18 000 galleons and unknown objects, and the Saul General Holdings Vault, containing 7 000 galleons and unknown objects."

The goblin paused a moment before continuing "Your property includes Potter Manor, Godric's Hollow, an apartment in London, a Saul Family House, and the Aragon Family House, all of which are in the United Kingdom. You also inherited the Aragon Hereditary Estate in Italy, and The Black Island which appears to be in the pacific ocean."

Another brief pause. The goblin's frown has been progressively turning into a sorta smile. "Your stock holding are as follows: 2% stake in The Daily Profit, 4% stake at Witch Weekly, 10% stake in The Broomakers Alliance, 10% stake in Honeydukes Candy Shop, and a 30% stake in Zonko's Joke Shop."

With one final pause "The Potter Family has been making the following yearly donations: 10 000 galleons to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 10 000 galleons to the Ministry of Magic, Law Enforcement Division, 10 000 galleons to the Ministry of Magic, Muggle Relations division, 5 000 galleons to Ollivander's Wizarding Wands, and 20 000 galleons to the St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. These donations are entirely paid for in the dividends you receive from the stock holdings. Should the dividends be insufficient, the money would be taken from the Potter Family Vault."

Harry just blinked at him as his mind interpreted all that he had just been told. Acid actually appeared to recover from it quicker than him when she asked "What it the current Galleon to Dollar conversion rate?"

"40 dollars to a galleon. I will inform you that you may not access the Potter Family Vault until your 15th birthday, and the donation amounts may only be changed should the dividends received not cover the amount in donations."

Harry remained silent for another 30 seconds "Would it be possible to consolidate all the money to which I have access to into one vault, and then for me to visit my that Vault, and my Storage Vault?"

A silent nod from the goblin later, and they were in a cart. That reminds him

"What is your name, by the way?"

The goblin looked surprised at the question and answered "Argnik", and then they were gone! Off, at high speeds they zoomed off through a small white hall, twisting and turning as it turned and branched off, and rose and fell. A portal seemed to be in front of them and then...

They were now surrounded by a cave-like area. But... they were on the 13th floor, weren't they?

A few minutes later, Argnik saw Kate (aka Acid) and Harry's dumbfounded expressions and explained "Your vault is located at our London Branch - that portal allows rapid transit between the two areas. You are now, however, authorised to leave into this branch without paying a 100 galleon transportation fee. We don't want people checking their vaults for a free trans-atlantic trip.

That seemed perfectly reasonable. "How exactly do I have access to these other vaults... Saol and Aragon..."

It was Kevin who answered that question. "Because of who you are, some heirless families decided to make you their heir, instead of having their estate be given to the ministry."

"What do you mean by because of who I are?"

"You shall find out soon. I promise"

"Very well" answered Harry, before turning his eyes to the enormous vault doors.

Argnik slid his slender finger down the length of the vault door and instructed Harry to place his hand in a hole which appeared.

Harry hesitantly held his hand in the hole, and, moments later, gave out a quick, short yelp. It had pinched him!

However, before he could get annoyed at Argnik for not warning him, the door opened.

He saw piles and piles of gold and silver and bronze voins. And mostly gold coins. That's when he realised the problem. Coins. Not cash, coins - they took up a lot of room.

"Are there any ways to easily make withdrawals from outside? Something like a debit card?"

"Yes. The Self-Refilling bag costs 5 galleons + 1 galleon a month, and will allow you to withdraw money from your vault automatically. Withdrawals over 1000 galleons will be subject to an additional 1 galleon charge, as we place each kilogalleon in a seperate space-expanded bag."

"I'll take it" said Harry.

The group all returned to Argnik's office, were he rapidly gave them a few papers to sign, and then gave him a money bag. Instructions were given (Speak the amount you desire outloud and it will appear in the bag. Only that and nothing more.

Harry, Kevin, and Kate (also known as Wizard, Kevin and Acid) left the bank at a leisurely pace.

"O, before I forget, here's the money you spent on me." Harry proudly placed his hand in the bag and verbalised "Eleven Galleons". He took his hand out of the bag, and proudly gave 11 galleons to Kevin, who chuckled at Harry's antics. A few feet later, they stopped and Kevin asked "I feel that we are all following the other no were - so, Harry, were do you want to go first?"

Harry appeared surprised at the question, as he realised that he had been following Acid, who had been following him and Kevin, who had been following them... But were could he go?

"Are there any gadget shops?"

Chuckling at his question, which he should have expected (I mean, what's better than gadgets? And magical gadgets at that), and he led them to Slim Slam Slop. Harry tried not to let himself purchase everything. He really did. He wanted to only get one thing. But there was so much stuff and it was soooo cool!

That's because the "gadget" shop, is actually a full-fledged New Technologies shop. That's just wizard-speak for ideas stolen from non-magicals (He refused to use that idiodic term "Muggle" that the british had invented. Here in the USA, he more often heard them reffered to as non-magicals, nomags, or mundanes.)

He ended up leaving with an Everfull Printer, which auto-resupplied itself in ink, paper, and repairs, and MagicModem, which could give access to the internet through the phone line, but also through electromagical waves the company emited from all over the world (that needed a subscription fee of 100 galleons a month, and they guaranteed you wouldn't be able to whistle your way past the fee), and a brand new Apple Laptop.

And the laptop was weird - nothing like what you could purchase in the nomag world - It was a weird, sleek, silver design - and slimmer than most laptops. It had been specially modified to feed off environmental magic, and allegedly had a mind-interfacing capabilities - but those were apparently extremly hard to use - you needed to know something called "Occlumency" to be able to use that.

There next stop, of course, was the book store. And the main book store was, surprisingly, called "Shakespeare, or Beedle the Bard".

.:-o~o-:.

A/N I can really see the temptation to make him heir to tons of stuff. It's just so easy. And hard to resist. And why you wouldn't want to put amounts.

Also, couldn't resist the h alliteration. I do like alliterations.

I wish I could make this chapter a bit longer, but the date called for an update, and this was a suitable ending point. I no longer have chapters written in advance. Next chapter will probably be shorter because i have a ton ton ton ton ton of homework due next week.


	4. Magical Shopping pt2

AN: I changed the name from Shakespeare and Beedle the Bard to Shakespeare, or Beedle the Bard. It was, I think, a better idea.

.:-o~o-:.

The group entered Shakespeare, or Beedle the Bard, and then had to stop as Harry has stopped, drinking in the sight. There were books! Lots and lots and lots and lots of them! They went up to the ceiling, and the rows went forever and ever!

But, then he remembered something, and turned to Kevin, putting his "serious" face on (which was quite adorable on his 11 year old self).

"Why did those people leave me money?"

"Go to..." he paused, obviously trying to remember something "I believe it is Row 32, Alley 19."

With a confused look, Harry followed the directions, and arrived at... well, the shelf was the same as all the others. But... the title, the subject matter... it was him! Harry Potter! How... He turned to Kevin with a frown, and aquestioning face.

Kevin smiles and said "You're famous," and left it at that.

That wasn't, obviously, a sufficient answer for our main character "Whah, but, I didn't do anything! How can I be famous here? I only learnt about it a week ago."

He turned on a glare (much to the amusement of Kate) aimed towards Kevin.

"OK, OK, I'll tell you." Kevin said, muttering spoilsport.

"So, starting in the late 1950s, and especially in the 60s and 70s, there was this evil wizard in the island across the pond, a dude who called himself "Lord Voldemort" (He wasn't royalty or anything like that, he just called himself lord)

So, this here guy, he got a bunch of followers, they called themselves death eaters, who went terrorising the world - they were doing stuff like bribery, blackmail, mass murders and worse, just, a ton of horrid stuff. And none of the brits had the balls to stand up to him. So, him and his merry band of terrorists went on oppressing the country. Until he decided to attack you.

Now, your parents, James and Lily Potter were apparently some of the few who'd grown a pair, and were fighting him. And, for some reason I can't tell, when he tried to kill you, this madman blew himself up. He tried to use this curse called "Avada Kedavra" on you, and it backfired. Blew up the hole house too. That's what gave you your scar.

Anyways, so, this happens, and word somehow gets out that Harry James Potter had offed their "Dark Lord", and they, in some logicless manner, decide that you must be a hero, who at the peril of his life stopped their problem (regardless of the fact that you were a single year of age), and so, well, all that.

The money's from families who had no heir and decided you would obviously be a good person, and so would use their resources well.

That's the crux of the story - I skipped over some parts, but I'm sure there's at last one of these books which can tell you more. They can't all be crap (Though I haven't read any of them)."

Harry just looked at him for a while before answering "So, when I was one, this bad guy tried to kill me, and I magicly stopped him without knowing it so I'm this sorta super-hero?"

"Essentially, yes."

"They didn't stop to think of how illogical that was?"

"The British, despite being the leaders in magical eduation, are, I'm sorry to say, lacking in logic."

Pause. "Well, then. Lets get the rest of my stuff."

Harry thought about the story while getting the rest of his books. That explained a lot of things: The inheritance, why the Dumbledore fellow would invite him to the school, and the way several people seemed to take several looks at him. (Though, this being NYC, were the rich and famous are common sights, no one went and made a spectacle.)

Once he got all his school books, he looked around some more, obviously. He chose himself an extra book of charms (focused on animating inanimate objects), arithmacy (That, at least, seems like it's got to be logical, right?), and Magical Technology of the Twentieth Century. He asked Kevin if he had any recommendations, who added Hogwarts a History, Long Edition, Intro to Potions, Intro to Magic, and The Brits for Dummies.

With that now completed, Harry was able to purchase the rest of his items (Cauldron (He added some eyes of newt and toes of frog for teh lolz), robes, hat, and co.)

After they got home (using the good old, "reliable" MTA, New York City Transit), he put his stuff down (or at least, those he was carrying) and fell asleep on the couch after opening his first book.

Now that he was out of the way, Kate turned on a glare at Kevin (hers was not cute at all. Menacing is the word to describe it) and motioned towards her room.

She sat him in her chair, and sat on her bed, and just glared at him with a look which clearly told him he had some explaining to do.

"Yes?" he asked

"Why didn't you tell me before that he was famous? Actually, why didn't you tell me he was a wizard as soon as you knew, and I now look back and know you knew from the begginign - it explains why you were so willing to let him in the Masters of Deception when even I had been refused."

A look of amusment entered Kevins eyes at the end of her rant, though he quickly began speaking up to avoid furthering her wrath. "You lack the qualifications to enter the MoD"

"Qualifications which he had?"

"Well, yes. Everyone in the MoD are wizards. We are Masters at Deceiving everyone else to think we are normal. We actually aren't amazing hackers - but we have magic which can help make up for it. As for to your first question, I'll admit I did know who he was. But we didn't let him into any real MoD meetings - he's still not experienced enough. And I wanted to let him enjoy it while he had as much in common with you as he could. From what I have figured out, he didn't get any affection growing up, or social interactions in general, and the more he got now, the better."

This mollified Acid a bit, though she was still pointedly glaring at him.

With a slight, amused shake of his head, he got up, and took out his wand, leading Acid to follow him with a slight questioning look. He waved it and Harry began levitating, along with the rest of his stuff, and Kevin brought him that way into his room before causing the blankets to cover him, and the pillow to arrive under his head. The books were placed on the night table.

It was with that image in mind that Kate and Kevin left Harry sleeping, before Kevin left and Kate went to sleep. They only had 2 more weeks before Harry had to leave, and she wanted to know as much as he did.

.:-o~o-:.

AN: Sorry this wasn't longer. I had an FRQ to do for history, summaries of congressional briefings to do, I sitll have an essay to write, a french essay to write, and tons of other stuff. It's over a thousand words, which is my minimum for publishing, but it's under the 2000 I like it to be. ,, mmmm


	5. On Magic

The following morning, Harry woke up to blinding sunlight streaming in through his open window, a hot breeze was ruffling his hair.

At first he wondered if it was all a dream, a great fantasy about his piles of money, magical shops, and a wonderful, secret society. And then he looked to the left, and saw, piled on his nightstand, books! And his wand, but books! So many to choose from!

He decided to start with Intro to Magic. He figured that would be a good way for him to gain some basic knowledge, knowledge which people who grew up in wizarding society would know.

He had barely finished the firsts chapter, which was mostly a condensed history of the basic phases of magic.

It claims magic first started to be purposefully used by the ancient egyptians, though their magic was very different from today's magic - it was mostly rune based. This rune-based magic was the predominant form of magic untill 1000AD.

Greenland, however, was the exception to the rule. Around 400AD, they started using crafted focuses to do magic. These focuses had evolved into full fledged wands by the 600s. However, wands remained in only greenland until it was discovered by Vikings in the year 900. After that, wandlore rapidly spread to europe.

Between 1100AD and 1700AD, Europe was the epicenter of wand-based magic. The natives of the Americas practiced a more ritualistic, group form of magic. A similar form of magic was used in Africa, though there was a greater concentration on the use of magic through music. Finally, Asia used a mix of runic, and chant based ritualistic magic.

After 1700, however, magical world history largely followed muggle history, especially with the rise and fall of empires. Europeans coming into America considered the native's form of magic as barbaric and sought to suppress as much of it as possible. Coupled with the massive quantities of diseases brought by the Europeans to the Americas, the native magical population was reduced to almost nill. In the late 1900s, however, an area was found in south dakota in which a tribe of the Lenape indians had hidden from society in 1700, and remained hidden until 1974. At this day, they are the only known practitioners of the traditional native American magic.

Meanwhile, after 1700, wand magic began spreading throughout the world, though most importantly in Australia, which had, until then, remained with few methods of controlling magic.

The 1800s were a period of great magical innovation around the world. Some theorists called it the top of the brain curve, the epoch of the magical world. Items such as the Wizarding Wireless Service, the floo network, and Collapsible Cauldrons were all invented in that century. However, the Dark Lord Gimbadi temporarily gained power and popularity in the 1880s, and viciously attacked all innovators, and liberal thinkers. He caused such terror that even after his death, people were unable to think of making their society progress without feeling the terror of his existence. Some French magicophilosophers have theorised that he placed a curse on England to ensure that terror remains, however no english magicophilosophers have ever studied it.

As a result, the political system, and many others have remained unchanged since the 1800s. Traditions which were popular in the 1800s are thus still popular today.

However, the magical world is still managing to, very slowly, improve. This is due to muggleborns who are free from the curse and are often educated in the ways of history, who attempt to bring the magical world into the 20th century. However, their attempts unknowingly bring fear into the hearts of the pureblood families, which leads to a sense of mistrust towards the muggleborns. This mistrust is what leads them to be scapegoated for most all that is wrong with their society. Furthermore, until the 1920s, the government also used the muggleborns as a distraction from it's own incompetence. Whenever they had a problem, they blamed muggleborns and deflected the attention off of themselves.

After reading through that, he noticed almost an hour had passed, and he started on his next chapter. It was fascinating, talking about magical theory and why stuff worked, but he had hardly gotten through the first page when Acid came in and saw him reading. At 9AM. In bed and he hadn't gotten up or said hello or even had breakfast and she was not happy with him. So he got up and painfully pulled himself to the kitchen, where he made himself a bowl of cereal and milk. And he ate it all under Kate's watchful eye.

And then he was back, reading his book Intro to Magic, but we won't go into the details of the rest as it would probably be dreadfully boring for you (Unless you want it)

The rest of his week went on much the same way. Once his first book finished, he went on to Intro to Potions, which explained the reasons behind various actions, along with a few common potions.

That was followed with the Brits for Dummies book, and he was quite astounded by how backwards the brits seemed. They even used marriage contracts, and valued "blood purity". What difference does it make? We are all made of flesh and blood and billions of atoms and molecules. If anything, purebloods, the book theorised, probably had a lower intellect and magical power due to the inbreeding used to keep themselves pure.

The book covered much more, such as their government, their customs, the differences between the British flavour of english and the american flavor of it. All in all, a good all around guide for a newcomer to the british magical society.

Kate then made him read through all his school books before reading his extra-curricular stuff.

And he read through all of them. Twice, taking notes in the margins (but not highlighting. He believed in trusting in the publisher to emphasise the important stuff. Especially with school books)

And then he used the laptop.

And it was amazing. He, unfortunatly, had to plug it in to recharge it, as there wasn't any ambient magic in his nomag apartment. But, well, first of all, the battery lasted almost 10 hours! And the screen was huge! He could have dozens of lines of code on it at a time!

The first thing he did was remove the ugly proprietary black box operating system it came with, somehting called OSX, and replaced it with his personal GNU+Linux flavor (heavily customized, of course). (He had no idea how his floppy discs fit into the extremly skinny slot for them, but magic he supposed.)

The internet was Fast. And he didn't mean 30Kb/s fast. It was almost 300Kb/s fast! Way above any current internet providers.

And the internet was wireless! He didn't even know how they could manage to do that (magic!) but they did! And since mundan police forces didn't know of the magic world, they couldn't trace his IP through his modem and so he was uncatchable! (He, obviously, allowed Kate to connect to the modem with her laptop - the modem had a built-in adapter to work with all devices)

What followed was a spree of hacking and cracking the likes of which the world had rarely seen. Because cracking was easy. Cracking undetected was hard.

He didn't do anything seriously bad, of course. Nothing worse than a cookie monster or two. Definitly copying a ton of classified documents to read, or not (Who had time to read thousands of pages of boring beaucratic nonsense)

But he managed to access almost every major network. CIA, CNN, NASA, even a Gibson supercomputer! Now that was awesome. The feeling of having that much power...

Time went by, and sooner than later, September 1st arrived. Kevin showed up, and brought him and Acid back to the Magical Mall, where they went to the international departures floo section, and, after Kevin gave them a brief explanation, they arrived in the Paris Magical Mall's international departures floo area, from were it was a simple floo to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

Once there, there was hardly any time, despite leaving early in the day from NYC, England was 5 hours later, and the train was leaving in only a half hour! And Harry didn't want to be the last one on, so he hurried onto the train after quickly hugging Kate and waving goodbye to Kevin.

.:-o~o-:.

Just out of curiosity - has anyone here figured out were Kate's inspiration is? Or Kevin's?

Also, sorry about the late update - I was way overloaded with homework last week, and only had time to write now.

Does stuff such as the history of magic which I included interest you? And do you think I *should* include stuff like it? I'm going to try to post an update this saturday, but if I fail I will post one next saturday.

Also, when *is* Harry's birthday? June 31st or July 31st?


	6. The Hogwarts Express

Harry was sitting, tapping away at his computer (Trying to make an algorithm that would consistently find Jesus. Or at least, manage to recognise illustrations of him). He was totally immersed in the problem and so wasn't very aware of his surroundings.

Ever since he had left the Dursley's, he had been letting or encouraging, his hair to grow longer, and when he was out and about he would keep it in a ponytail. But here, as he started coding while he was alone and didn't think to look up since, his hair was unattached and frankly quite messy. And he was laying across a whole row of seats!

As a result, when Ronald Weasley passed by the compartment, he assumed Harry was keeping it for someone else, and moved on without a word.

Hermione Granger, however, saw our coder with a computer. A computer! Hogwarts a History said that electronic devices wouldn't work in Hogwarts! She chose the seat across from him and looked at him inquisitively (she didn't dare interrupt.)

He obviously didn't notice. He had just figured out how to make his recursive function iteratively reverse the float, and XOR it to figure out whether the color of each pixel was similar (within a degree of variation which depended on that of the rest of the image) to that of a reference image. What could be more exciting than that! He didn't even have to make a kludge to get it to work!

But then Hermione took her courage in her hands and said "I'm sorry to bother you, but do you mind if I ask you a quick question?"

To which Harry looked up with a smile (He had just finished a function so she wasn't really interrupting anything) "While you did just ask a question, I don't mind you asking another one. I firmly believe that you should never ask to ask a question, just ask a question - asking to ask is just as interrupting as asking but adds a whole other useless step."

She frowned at him for a moment before regaining her train of thought.

"Did you know" she said "that your computer will most likely cease to function in Hogwarts? You might be better off removing the battery, that way the magical energy fluxes won't break it."

Smiling at her naivety (Brits for Dummies had mentioned how the English magicals hadn't reached anywhere near the technological capacities of the rest of the world.

"This laptop is specially warded to leech off of that energy to charge its batteries. It's warded so as to not have its functions impeded by a high-magic-energy surrounding"

She blinked twice. Little known fact about Hermione was that she had enjoyed using computers before coming to Hogwarts. She had even started making a website! OK, it was very Web 1.0 with IE6ish - flashing text, neon colors, and no idea about what proper design is, but still! She had thought that she would end up loosing any skills with computers that she had, but here she was learning that there did exist computers that could...

"Unfortunately, magic-compatible computers aren't available for sale anywhere in the UK."

And then he noticed the book in her arms, and asked a brief question about it, which led to an animated discussion of the Elementary Laws of Transfiguration, with him questioning them, the nerve of him. She made sure to give him a piece of her mind, I mean, questioning a book? And not only a book, but a School Book?

"Hermione, not everything in print is true. Lets take... Did you read any of the books about the Boy Who Lived?"

She nodded

"As far as I can tell, all the books about the Boy Who Lived are false. I haven't seen a single one which mentions anything true."

This statement brought a frown back on her face. "How dare you claim those Authors are wrong?"

Well, to give Harry credit, he didn't burst out laughing. Well, only a bit. Then he pulled his hair back into a ponytail, letting her see the scar. Her mouth formed an O.

Seeing she still wasn't entirely convinced on his point about books, he added "Do humans make mistakes?"

She nodded

"Are authors human?"

An eyeroll and a nod

"So books are made by humans."

A nod, and the side of her face made it appear that she was beginning to see what he was leading to, but didn't want to..

"Thus books may have errors"

She frowned and seemed to consider it, before nodding.

"Lets have an easy test - tell me what the books about me say, and I'll tell you how my life has really been."

She became much more upbeat at this. A test! She knew those. She sat upright, recalling what she knew, getting into recitation mode.

"So, according to various source-materials which I will be synthesising, through a mysterious, powerful, good bout of magic, the Boy-Who-Lived repelled a curse called 'avada-kedavra' cast by a person who people refer to as He-who-must-not-be-named, by the name of Lord Voldemort, back onto him. He was then adopted by a good, caring family where he has grown up in a old-fashioned pureblood-household."

Harry raised an eyebrow at the end and corrected her

"I was raised by my mother's sister's family, who are muggles, who hated everything related to magic, and treated me so poorly that I ran away when I was 8 years old, and took a plane to America, were I ended up being taken in by Kate, who's more of an older-sister than a parent to me, and spent the next 3 years improving my coding skills, learning about networks (occasionally looking through company's files, and maybe adding a few things), and teaching myself from books while Kate was (and is) doing her phd. Then while at HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) my Hogwarts letter came, and I was introduced as a result to Kevin who revealed the MoD are a hacking group made of wizards, and then brought me to the Macys Magical Mall, and I got books and my wand and school stuff and have spent the time since reading a bunch of stuff. And I don't know anything about how "I" defeated Voldemort - it's probably something my parents or someone else did.

Quite different from what those stories suggested. I only learned about the magical world a month ago."

Another O was formed by Hermione's mouth, and Harry was quite appreciating astounding her multiple times, however that moment was interrupted by a pudgy boy coming into their compartment and asking them if they had by any chance happened to spot his frog (named Trevor) and if they knew where he might be.

Well, Harry and Hermione obviously hadn't seen him, but when Hermione started to offer to help him, Harry suggested he try to find an older kid, maybe the head-boy, who might have some magical method of making the reptile return. The pudgy boy nodded and left to the end of the train, while both Harry and Hermione went back to their books.

The boy returned a few minutes later with his frog (A fat green thing which kept trying to hop out of his hands) and they both looked up at him as he closed the door behind him. "Most of the other compartments are full" he gave for and explanation "I'm Neville. Neville Longbottom." He said.

"Hermione Granger" she said, shaking his hand.

"And I'm Harry Potter," another hand shook Neville's, who looked quite surprised for about 2 seconds, before his upbringing caught ahold of him.

"Pleased to meet you Harry, Hermione." and he took a seat by Hermione (Harry was still taking most of the row.)

They started talking (and Harry ended up putting away his computer - no sense letting the battery run down, even though it would soon be auto-charging). Neville spoke a bit about the "polite society" or the pureblood world, Harry talked about the best city in the world (New York), while Hermione listened, while also talking about all the reasons behind stuff which they didn't know about. Theories on the physics of apparition, and other stuff. She even admitted that the Muggle Studies book was quite bad. (They applauded her for a full minute, to her embarrassment.)

The time quickly passed, and before they knew it, Hermione was announcing that they were arriving at Hogwarts and that she should go get changed and that they were going to be arriving and that maybe Trevor should be put in a cage or bag?

Trevor ribbited.

They exited the train, and Neville, Hermione, and Harry ended up in a boat together, and were quickly struck by the magnificent view of Hogwarts they saw.

.:-o~o-:.

Yes, I like alliterations. Shoot me.

And no clifie for you. I decided I'm going to reduce the update speed to every other saturday mostly because I don't think I can write enough to make a weekly schedule.

This chapter clocks at just under 1500 words (Pre ANs which I don't consider part of the chapter but just a way for me to have a little "human" contact before retreating to my cave.)

Toodles!


End file.
